In a mixing bowl, combine flour with salt, sugar and pepper. In a separate bowl, mix the eggs with heavy cream. Add this to the flour, then slowly pour in 200ml of beer. Mix all together and let rest for 30'.

In a meantime, place the spinach in a heatproof bowl, cover with cling foil and put in a microwave for 1'. If you don't use the microwave, blanch the spinach for a minute in a hot water. Drain well and finely chopped. Add the spinach into a pancake batter. If the mixture is to thick, add some more beer (I added 50ml more).

Fry the crêpes.

For the filling, mix the cream cheese, crumble feta cheese and a pepper.

Spread some filling on each crêpe and top with 2 slices of ham. Roll the crêpes and arrange in a pan. Sprinkle with some grated cheese and put in a hot oven until the cheese is melted. Serve warm.

Tuesday, 26 May 2015

It's been awhile since I participate in Daring Bakers Challenge. This month I decided I have to enter no matter what. And the challenge was great! Although lamingtons (here called čupavci) are really often made here in this part of the world and everybody will tell you that it's their favorite childhood treat, for me it's not that case. My mother don't like coconut and she simply don't make coconut cakes. So the lamingtons in my house are started to make when I began to cook. At one time I used to make it quite often, but then simple I forgot about them. The challenge Marcellina in cucina gave was great for me, but I decided to step out of my comfort zone and try something different. The result was great! For the sponge cake I used Marcellina recipe, but then I sandwich them with my homemade strawberry jam and coat them in white chocolate ganache made with coconut milk. The idea came by itself, since by the time I thought how to make lamingtons, my jam was on the stove and when I enter the pantry to grab jars for jam, there it was a can of coconut milk. If you don't like white chocolate use dark. You wan't use all of the jam from the recipe for the lamingtons, of course but I'm pretty sure you will find some other way to use it.

LamingtonsPlease scroll down for SerbianIngredients for the sponge:

5 eggs

225gr sugar

a pinch of salt

150gr cornflour

50gr plain flour

1,5 tsp baking powder

for the jam:

1kg chopped fresh strawberries

500gr sugar

juice from half a lemon

for the chocolate icing:

200ml coconut milk

200gr white chocolate

about 150gr shredded coconut

Directions:

First make the jam. Combine the strawberries with the sugar and leave on a room temperature a couple of hours or in a fridge overnight.Add the lemon juice and bring to a boil. Cook over a high heat for 10-15'. Divide it between sterilized jars.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 23x33xm pan with parchment paper.

Whisk the eggs and sugar until the mixture is pale and triple in volume, for 10'. Sift both flours, salt and baking powder over the egg mixture and carefully fold it in. Spread the mixture into prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake for 20-25'. Immediately take the baked cake from the pan and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Cut the sponge in 5x5cm squares and then cut horizontally each square. Sandwich them together using a jam, then dip each part in chocolate icing and roll in coconut.

For the chocolate icing, combine the coconut milk and chopped white chocolate in a saucepan and warm it up over a middle high heat to melt.

Preheat the oven to 200C. Line a smaller pan with parchment paper. Cut the strawberries in half or if they are really big in quarters. Mix them with sugar and transfer to a pan. Bake for 7-8' until softened. Leave them to cool.

In a blender or chopper put the strawberries along with the juices from the pan, lemon juice and yogurt and blend it all together. Transfer this mixture to an ice-cream maker or in a plastic canister, then put in a freezer. Stir from time to time.

Meatball Pasta With Creamy Spinach SauceIngredients for the meatballs:

500gr ground meat (beef and pork)

1 onion

1 egg

1 tsp mustard

2 tbsp breadcrumbs

for the sauce:

1 tbsp flour

250ml soup

250ml milk

100gr blue cheese

100gr fresh spinach

a pinch of nutmeg

salt, pepper, oil

grated lemon zest

300gr pasta

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200C.

In a bowl, mix the meat, finely chopped onion, an egg, mustard and breadcrumbs and shape this mixture into meatballs. Heat some oil and fry the meatballs until browned on each side. Transfer them to the oven and bake for 15'.

Meanwhile, make the sauce. Heat some oil, add the flour, cook it for a minute or so, then pour in the soup and milk and cook the sauce for 7-8'. A couple of minutes before the end add the cheese and cook until it's melted. Two minutes before the end add the spinach (chop it up if the leaves are too big). Remove from the heat and add the nutmeg, salt and pepper by taste.

Cook the pasta and drain it.

Mix the pasta with the sauce, arrange the meatballs and grate some lemon zest on top. Serve warm.

In a kneading bowl, mix the flour and sugar. Add the diced butter and rub it into flour. Add the whisked egg yolk and water and knead a dough. Wrap it in plastic foil and chill for 30'.

For the filling, mix the sliced strawberries with sugar and cornstarch.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a big baking pan with parchment paper.

Divide the dough in 5 parts. Roll each part in a thin circle. On the middle of each part arrange some filling, then fold the edges toward center. Brush the edges with whisked egg white and sprinkle with some sugar. Bake for 25-30' until nicely golden brown. Dust with powdered sugar.

Note: Instead of this small ones, you can make one big. And instead of strawberries you can use any forest fruit, apples, plums, peaches...

Strawberry Lemonade

Ingredients:

1,5l water

300gr sugar

400gr chopped strawberries

3dl freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

Mix half of the water with sugar and strawberries. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and let cook for 10'. Remove from the heat and let cool completely. Strain the mixture, add the rest of the water and lemon juice. Cool before serving.

Moist Strawberry Rolls

Ingredients for the syrup:

250gr sugar

200ml water

for the pastry:

50+120gr butter

200gr flour

1 sachet (12gr) baking powder

1 4 tsp salt

70ml milk

300gr chopped strawberries

Directions:

First make the syrup. Mix the sugar and water and bring to a boil until the sugar has melted. Remove from the heat.

In a kneading bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Add 120gr of diced cold butter and rub it into flour. Next, add the milk and knead the dough. On a floured surface roll the dough into rectangle, arrange the strawberries on it and roll the dough. Cut it into6-7cm slices.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Put a 50gr of butter in a pan and place in the oven for butter to melts. Carefully take the pan from the oven and arrange the slices cut part down in the pan. Leave a plenty of space in between. Pour the syrup between the slices. Bake for 40-50' until nicely golden brown.Take it out of the oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar. For serving, take the slice from the pan and pour some of the syrup on top. Serve both warm and cold.

Strawberry Crumble

Ingredients:

about 700gr strawberries

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp flour

vanilla

100gr oatmeal (old fashioned)

100gr homemade breadcrumbs

4 tbsp yellow sugar

2 egg whites

Directions:Preheat the oven to 200C. In a heatproof pan combine the chopped strawberries, the sugar, flour and vanilla. Put in the oven.For the crumble mix the oatmeal, breadcrumbs and sugar. Line a pan with parchment paper and arrange this mixture on it. Bake for 10'. Take the pan out of the oven, add the egg whites and using a spoon or your hands, if you can stand the heat, mix all together.Take the pan with the strawberries out of the oven, arrange the crumbs on top and bake all together for another 15' until nicely golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Homemade breadcrumbsChop the middle of the bread in a foodprocessor (not too small). Arrange the breadcrumbs on the big pan lined with parchment paper and bake in not too hot oven to become crunchy, but not golden brown. Cool completely, transfer to a Ziploc bag and keep in a freezer.

In a kneading bowl, mix the flour, salt, pepper and thyme. Add the diced butter and rub it in flour using your fingertips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the whisked egg and knead the dough. Wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30'.

For the filling, wash the ramp and put in a heatproof bowl.Add one tablespoon of water and oil. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a microwave for 1 minute. Take the ramp from the bowl and when it is cool enough for you to handle it, chop it up.* Whisk the eggs, milk, ricotta and cheese, then add the ramp, a pinch of salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Roll the dough thin and line the pan.* Pour in the filling, top it with crumble blue cheese and bake for 40'. Cool slightly before serving.

* Or if you don't use a microwave, blanch the ramp in a hot water for 1 minute. Drain well.

* I used one rectangle pan 24x9cm and three round pans 11cm in diameter. You can bake it in a one 24-25cm round tart pan.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar, then add the oil, water, flour and baking powder. Mix all together and spread on the pan. Bake for 10'. Cool completely.

For the syrup, cook all the ingredients until the sugar is melted.

For the filling, first fry the poppy seeds in a frying pan until they start to smell. Remove from the heat and cool.

Cream the butter and sugar. Then add the lemon curd and milk. Finally, add the poppy seeds and mix all together.

Cut the sponge into three stripes. Put the first one on the serving plate, brush it with lemon syrup, and spread a half of the filling on it. Repeat the process, sponge, syrup, filling and finish it up with a sponge.

For the glaze, mix the powdered sugar with lemon juice until you get a desirable density. Immediately spread it on the cake. Chill before serving

Lemon Curd

Ingredients:

100gr sugar

2 eggs

120ml lemon juice

grated zest from one lemon

110gr butter

Directions:

Put all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl and put in a microwave for 30 seconds. Take it out, mix and return again for 30 seconds. Repeat about 2 more times until the curd has thickened. If you have never cooked the cream in a microwave, reduce the time after the second time for 10-15 seconds. Or you can cook the curd over the pan with boiling water. Keep the curd in a fridge for about 7 days.

Strawberries With Lemon Cream

Ingredients:

200gr chopped strawberries

4 tbsp sugar

100gr ground biscuits

40gr melted butter

150gr cream cheese

50gr powdred sugar

2 dcl heavy cream (whisked)

2-3 tbsp lemon curd

Directions:

Put the strawberries and sugar in a saucepan and cook for a couple of minutes until softened. Cool them.

Mix the biscuits and melted butter and divide it between 4 glasses or ramekins.

Mix the cream cheese and sugar. Add the heavy cream and lemon curd. Gently stir and arrange over the biscuits base. On top of it add the strawberries. Chill before serving.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and flour a 20x30cm baking pan or line with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar, then add egg one by one followed by melted chocolate. Mix the sour cream and yogurt. Sift the chocolate pudding, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and flour. In the egg mixture add alternatively yogurt and flour mixture.

Pour the mixture into a prepared pan, level it up and on the top arrange the sliced strawberries. Bake for 30' (toothpick test). Dust with powdered sugar.